In a typical electrophotographic printing process, a photoconductive member is charged to a substantially uniform potential so as to sensitize the surface thereof. The charged portion of the photoconductive member is exposed to a light image of an original document being produced. Exposure of the charged photoconductive member selectively dissipates the charge thereon in the irradiated areas. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive member corresponding to the informational areas contained within the original document. After the electrostatic latent image is recorded on the photoconductive member the latent image is developed by bringing a developer material into contact therewith. Generally, the developer material is made from toner particles adhering triboelectrically to carrier granules. The toner particles are attracted from the carrier granules to the latent image forming a toner powder image on the photoconductive member. The toner powder image is then transferred from the photoconductive member to an intermediate belt or directly to a media sheet. Since the photoconductive member can be a belt, it is common that the media sheet is in contact with a belt. After the media sheet has been separated from the belt, heat and pressure are applied to the toner particles to permanently affix the powder image to the media sheet.
High speed commercial printing machines of the foregoing type handle a wide range of differing thickness media sheets. The bending stiffness of the media sheet is generally a function of the thickness of the sheet. Thus thicker media sheets have greater bending stiffness than thinner media sheets. It is not unusual for the leading edge of a thin media sheet to adhere to the image carrying belt instead of being directed toward the fusing station. This may occur due to the electrostatic attractive force that develops between the media sheet and the image carrying belt at the transfer station, especially for thin flexible sheets or sheets having leading edges that are curled to conform to the belt. This is undesirable since this unwanted adherence can cause a media sheet to be conveyed along an unintended path which may lead to damage of a downstream xerographic system. It is thus known practice to cause the printer to perform an immediate shutdown if it is detected that a media sheet has not properly detached from the image carrying belt.